I was wondering if anyone can gvie me some information about this small company. I am considering getting my fisrt modular from these guys, and was curious to get some reviews/tips.

Also, I was curious about placement suggestions when it comes to different modules, i.e. exactly how I would set it up. I will go through their list(if the feedback is good obv) of modules, and give an approximation of how I think it should be organized, and hopefully, some of you guys with experience and expertise would critique it so that I can have a better understanding as to how it should be arranged.

So far, I have learned a bit just from reading their site and the part1&2 of the threads here about modular synthesis information, but however, if anyone would care to chime in with anything that they think I can learn from, I would love to read it.

The products are generally great and the build quality is excellent. I have a decent dotcom system myself._________________A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"

Yeah, I have pretty gone through his website with a fine tooth comb, trying to extract all the information I can. After looking at some of the offered systems and looking at some others, I think I'll be in a good spot to have a "rough draft" version of what I think my system may look like.

The products are generally great and the build quality is excellent. I have a decent dotcom system myself.

+1
Quite chunky stuff. Great to work with.
I have a 5HU Dotcom system sitting side by side with a 3HU Doepfer size one. The 3HU stuff is more weird, there are some really crazy modules around. 5HU and esp. Dotcom is much more straight forward, more the classic approach.
3HU feels like laboratory equipment to me, while Dotcom feels more like a musical instrument. I love mine.

So, I am having an issue trying to wrap my head around the Q960 and what it does. Does it sequence a chain of sounds? Or does it sequence the way that one sound is made/altered? Would anyone like to explan in laymen's terms it's function and practical use.

Sadly, I am not savvy enough with the technical speak(for now) to understand it the way it is described in that fashion, but until I can learn the language, I may ask some rather dumb/rudimentary questions. I appreciate the time and patience that you guys have to point me in the right direction when it comes to explaining these things.

Thanks again for the advice, sugestions and the chance I have to learn from you guys.

The 960 is basically a clone of the Moog 960 and there is a series of modules to go with it. Brilliant stuff. That was the easy part. The hard part is to explain in depth what it does. Basically you step through a row or rather rows of control voltages. You can skip steps and you can have steps trigger rows and such. It is quite possible to set up patches that you can play and improvise with. It is great for all sorts of stuff.

It is plain wrong to think of each step as a preset tone.. I mentioned control voltages and that is what you get. This also means that you can use the 960 for say modulation, filter stepping ( you send voltages to a filter(s) and thus getting say a rythmical modulation of the filter(s).. or whatever. Ok.. I´ll repeat myself: brilliant stuff. You will never run out of magical tricks in your arsenal with as few 960s around.

That being said, the 960 in combination with a computer based step sequencer like the Numerology is really awesome.

The q119 is much simpler but very useful as well. And do get the Q171 Quantizer + the Q172!_________________A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"

The Q960 is in fact far more complex than what you may think, but it is very easy to get started with it. if you consider buying one then also get the companion modules like the Trigger Bus module. And just one 960 is a bit on the lethargic side really. Think big.

Anyways, you could save some money and simply use Numerology ?!_________________A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"

Probably.. I´ve never actually thought much on getting MIDI out of the modular. IMO, that is not really the point with a modular system of this type. There are however ways to send control voltages from a computer to a modular as well as ways to sample control voltages. However, none of these methods do in any way resemble or mimic the midi capabilities of digital synths from say Roland or Korg._________________A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"

Well, I was asking because being able to record is a real concern. I mean, I would like to use the modular in my current studio, besides just making awesome sounds.

...

Quote:

Or is it better to jus use a normal 1/4 jack with an audio interface?

MIDI is a stream of digital control events, no sound. You know that, don´t you? You´re talking about two different things.
Audio recording of a modular is no problem at all, it´s just another instrument. As you said: 1/4 jack into the audio interface.
Getting MIDI out of the modular is, well, questionable. The modular synth is no snapshot thing. You´ll dial in a sound, a pattern or sequence and record it on a track. Then you´ll do another patch and the first one will be lost. So, if you record the CV events as MIDI events for reproduction you´ll still have to patch a sound out of your memory or from a sheet or what. Believe me, the more complex the patch is, the more different it will sound from the original one. There is nothing like total recall on a modular. It usually is 1. Patching, 2. Recording, 3. Tabula Rasa.

If you want to build up complex sequences to record on a computer via MIDI, go and get a complex MIDI stepper like the Schrittmacher. That would make much more sense. But not the sense of a modular. _________________--
How may I be of disservice?
---
Music for conscious listening @ http://www.fmdelight.de/

MIDI is a stream of digital control events, no sound. You know that, don´t you? You´re talking about two different things.
Audio recording of a modular is no problem at all, it´s just another instrument. As you said: 1/4 jack into the audio interface.
Getting MIDI out of the modular is, well, questionable. The modular synth is no snapshot thing. You´ll dial in a sound, a pattern or sequence and record it on a track. Then you´ll do another patch and the first one will be lost. So, if you record the CV events as MIDI events for reproduction you´ll still have to patch a sound out of your memory or from a sheet or what. Believe me, the more complex the patch is, the more different it will sound from the original one. There is nothing like total recall on a modular. It usually is 1. Patching, 2. Recording, 3. Tabula Rasa.

If you want to build up complex sequences to record on a computer via MIDI, go and get a complex MIDI stepper like the Schrittmacher. That would make much more sense. But not the sense of a modular.

this makes total sense, and very informative. Thanks for the reply. Being a newbie to modulars, I will ask some rather stupid questions at first. My question was mainly for a reference, just so that I would know. It dawned on me, as I made the comment here in this thread, that 1/4 jack would be the only real way to do it. I have to admit, that my inexperience with the subject will often lead me to asking self answering questions. I am just beginning to learn all of this. My only hands on stuff with "real" analogs comes from my p5 and my moog, and as I have come to find, I really don't know as much as I thought about the subject.

So, I guess I am still a bit confused as to why there is MIDI in the first place. Is it just to use a a slave?

Quote:

elektro80...Q960...

All of this was helpful as well, thank you. I may wait to get the Q960 until a later date, especially if the Q119 will do something similar at first.

So, I guess I am still a bit confused as to why there is MIDI in the first place. Is it just to use a a slave?

MIDI is just not a modulars domain. The MIDI I/O stuff generally is ment to make interaction with modern gear possible. If one would like to get a modular style approach to MIDI events he wouldn´t build up a physical modular system to change the generated CV into MIDI finally. He would use MIDI-soft with a modular concept, such like Numerology Stein quoted above.
Just watch it that way: "modulars are great and, hey, maybe it would be fun interacting with other MIDI gear." Thou it is not ment to be MIDIed in first place, it is great to get some MIDI in and out. Got it?
It´s quite similar to your Minimoog: wasn´t ment for MIDI, but fine it can be MIDIfied. You´d never think of using the Mini as a master keyboard for your other stuff, don´t you? _________________--
How may I be of disservice?
---
Music for conscious listening @ http://www.fmdelight.de/

Of course, I will be adding oscillators, but I noticed their "studio 66" comes with all of except the following:

q171, q172, q150, q161, q162, q146

It also comes with the pedal interfac, which I am not totally sold on, but will probably be worth it anyway. I also noticed there is enough blank panels to just add these into that system.

On the "studio 66" it comes with 7 oscillators, is that too many? or not enough? lol I know that gives me tremendous amounts of room to create, but at about 100 bucks each, I have to ask if it's worth it. I am inclined to say yes, but I would like to hear form you guys first about it.

Also, I know I can use Moogerfoogers with DOTCOM systems, so do I really need q116, the ring modular? Or i it worth it to have the ring modular on board and then use the Moogerfooger as an additional way to create effects?

Is this something that DOTCOM offers? Is it the Q106CRS? If so, then yes, I will most certainly will!

Also, I had previously sent a few emails to Morbius, but his asking price is a bit more than my wife's preapproved budget for this. All of his stuff seems really bad ass, but I think the modifications he has done puts the stuff a bit out of my reach, for now anyway. I also think that the stuff will be gone before I could come up with the extra money. Not too mention, I think I would prefer to get the initial system from one person/business instead of getting multiple pieces from different sources.

Yep, Stein is right: Dotcom doesn´t have LFOs. Therefore I´d vote for all 7 as well. I would recommend Q161 OscMixers and Q141 OscAid for three of the VCOs. That would make three fully featured oscillators for audio use and four LFO types.
I would highly recommend to add more VCAs. In a modular system they are not only for shaping loudness. They also make every general CV input of a module a voltage controlled one. Don´t underestimate that!

Yep, Stein is right: Dotcom doesn´t have LFOs. Therefore I´d vote for all 7 as well. I would recommend Q161 OscMixers and Q141 OscAid for three of the VCOs. I would highly recommend to add more VCAs. In a modular system they are not only for shaping loudness.

I think the route I will be going, the studio 66, has 4 VCA's in it already. Is that enough?

If I am going to take your advice and get 3 q141 and 3 q161, then I need to trim something down. I had already planned to get 1 of each, and that would leave me room for exactly one more module of a single width. I plan on cutting the pedal interface, seeing in how I don't plan to use it anyway. So that gives me 2 single width spaces, what else can I cut? I thought about going down to 6 oscillators, and that would give me room for 4 single width spaces, which would mean the extra 2 of both q161 and the q141. Is this a good idea? or do I need the 7th? If you suggest I keep the seventh, what are 2 modules in my list, that you think I may not need?

What about the connector interface(q120)? The only device I have that I might want to use with this, is a sampler with just RCA plugs, while the rest of my instruments can be plugged in via 1/4 jack. Isn't there an adapter with RCA plugs on one end, and a 1/4 on the other end? If so, I can leave this out, and just keep the q118 for that. What do you guys think? Is the q120 really that important?

What do you guys think about q116? I thought about leaving this out as I have the moogerfooger ring modulator, but is it important to have it on the modular itself? How much would I use it? If you think I wouldn't use it that often, would it be best to just use the q118 with the moogerfooger if I needed that effect? Sorry if this seems kind of dumb, but I am trying to make possible exceptions in the event I really want to keep that 7th oscillator.

What do you guys think about q147 and q146? How necessary will they be? I was thinking that they might be useful, but hearing what you guys have to say about them will be helpful and insightful.

Absolutely! There is no such thing as too many VCAs. And there is no such thing as too many envelope generators.

That being said, do keep in mind that the Q119 sequencer is a brilliant complex envelope generator.
Rats... the same can be said of the 960 class of modules...

And do consider that a plain VCA is basically an amp that is controlled by a control voltage. One common and quite entertaining way to use VCAs is for actual signal mixing of say a reverb or what have you.

For that matter, who said you are supposed to make simple monophonic sounds? You can easily approach this in a multichannel multilayered way._________________A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"

Good old normy..? Well.. you can probably survive very well without it.
The distributor module is handy more often than not... understatement...
The 111 Pan/Fade is also quite versatile.. understatement..
-And the Q118 Instrument Interface and the Q125 Signal Processor are both absolutely supervital.. at least to me. I have more than a few of each. _________________A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou cannot attach files in this forumYou can download files in this forum

Please support our site. If you click through and buy from our affiliate partners, we earn a small commission.